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(08-06-2018, 02:09 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Worth noting these crossings are better in every way than an IPS. Neither pedestrians, nor drivers have to wait unnecessarily, peds get the right of way immediately, and drivers can proceed when peds are clear, neither of which are true at an IPS.

I agree so hard.

I hate almost every single pedestrian crossing in the region that uses traditional traffic lights instead of a crossover.

I'm surprised pedestrian scrambles haven't gotten more attention around here. I don't know how pilot projects work, but this would be a logical one that would cost very little. You'd think the only cost would be associated with offering and analyzing statistics related to it.

So everyone knows what they are: "a type of traffic signal movement that temporarily stops all vehicular traffic, thereby allowing pedestrians to cross an intersection in every direction, including diagonally, at the same time."

As a driver I wish King/University was a scramble. I absolutely dread going through there under any condition other than straight through - turning is a complete nightmare with so many people to watch out for. I'd feel far more at ease if I knew that the only time I was allowed to turn was when it was completely devoid of all other influences - and wouldn't mind waiting a little longer at the intersection to allow for more pedestrian movement in the process.

Right now they have 1 turn lane and 2 travel lanes in all directions, but due to the fact that the right-most lane is usually blocked by a right-turning vehicle waiting for pedestrians, it's effectively 2 turn lanes with 1 travel lane in all directions. They could reconfigure the timing to scramble-cars-scramble-cars etc., maintaining the status quo for pedestrians and significantly improving the situation for cars, or they could reconfigure the timing as well as the intersection itself to 2 through lanes in all directions, leaving the car situation not much different than present (as the right-lane should remain almost free-flowing while the left-lane is blocked by turning traffic waiting for a clear spot) but the pedestrian realm significantly improved due to a smaller crossing and wider sidewalks in the area.

Intersections are the bottlenecks of our city roads. The speed of the throughput of the intersections restricts the speed of the entire network of city traffic. The best solution is to build overhead or underground passes for pedestrians to separate pedestrians from the traffic at the intersections. Overhead or underground passes for pedestrians at the intersections will increase the efficiency of entire city transportation.

Sorry, Xiaoming, but I must disagree harshly. Overpasses and underpasses are a concession to traffic, to give up the road to the use of cars only. They place an undue burden on the pedestrian to climb the grade difference to simply get across a street, and are very unfair to anyone using wheels (whether disabled, pushing a stroller, or managing a shopping trolley).

One need only look at the abject failure of Portage and Main in Winnipeg to see how unsuccessful such a design can be.

For accessibility those would be HUGE as to have ramps long enough to get to the height where it could be over or under traffic. But the extra distance for pedestrians to travel will pretty much make it so no one uses them.

How many people have you seen in the overpass at university by UW Engineering, compare that to the number of people crossing at the pedestrian crosswalk.

(10-15-2018, 02:16 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: The Toronto scrambles feature normal car/pedestrian cycles, and then a scramble for pedestrians only. I do not believe they have any vehicle-only segments.

I believe no turns are allowed at those intersections in Toronto. So when vehicle traffic has a green, pedestrians going the same direction have no conflicting vehicle movements at all. I don’t know about scrambles in other cities.

If I remember correctly, the pedestrian lights do this weird thing where they count down and go to a red hand, then turn green again for the scramble phase. They should just stay green when two consecutive green phases occur.

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